Michigan Vamp

My Old License Plate

Eccentric Night Owl

Quote from Blood Read

"An ambiguously coded figure, a source of both erotic anxiety and corrupt desire, the literary vampire is one of the most powerful archetypes bequeathed to us from the imagination of the nineteenth century."~ page 2 introduction to Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture

Intellectual Vampire Quote

"If the vampire is an other, he or she was always a figure in whom one could find one's self...the despicable as well as the defiant, the shameful as well as the unashamed, the loathing of oddness as well as pride in it."~ Richard Dyer

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Friday, February 26, 2016

Below is a deleted scene from Liar's Game, set shortly after the events in Part I. I ended up cutting it because it didn't
really add anything to the larger arc. I
also wasn't totally sure how to end it.
It was just a moment between Callie and Silas that jumped into my head
and so I wrote it.

Silas bent and slid the last of the lasagna into the bottom oven. He looked over at Callie and tipped his head
to one side, "wash or dry?"

She looked over at the pile of dishes and wrinkled her
nose. "Wash."

The little one was silent for several minutes though she
kept shooting him glances when she thought he wasn't looking. An unexpected nervous flutter tightened in
his belly. It had only been a few days
since Callie had figured out what he really was and this side-eye glance had
preceded some awkward questions. Silas
still couldn't believe Callie hadn't died.
As a precaution, he spread his power out thickly to make sure no one
could overhear them talking.

Finally, Callie spoke.
"How often do you feed on sex?"

Silas felt his eyebrows lift in surprise. He suppressed the
urge to say something enigmatic and instead shrugged one shoulder. "Depends on what is going on. With Mark around, I go out less than I might
otherwise."

"Okay."
Callie said with a nod and then set a bowl down on the edge of the
sink. "And how do you do that? I mean, not literally." A blush spread across her cheeks and
chest. "I mean, do you just go out
and say, like, what? Hey you, wanna
shag?"

A grin spread across his face. "That technique might work better for
you than me."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Well, I'm going to have to figure out
how to feed on sex. Seems easier than
feeding on pain or blood. Right? Or am I missing something?"

Silas considered the best way to answer her question. "Easier than pain, certainly. But sex and blood feeding can be combined, if
you are careful."

"Oh my god."
She closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head. "I'm going to bang strangers and then
eat their blood. Wow."

He gave her an appraising glance. She was foul mouthed and had several adults
in her head, but she never ever used the word 'fuck' to talk about having
sex. At
least, not without blushing. It was
both funny and irritating.

With a shrug, he said, "Many of us need to feed on
sex. We've developed networks to
facilitate this."

Callie frowned.
"How?"

Silas lifted one eyebrow and shot her a side-eyed glance of
his own. "How do you think?"

She was silent for a minute as she scrubbed. Then she froze in place. "Do we run brothels?"

He tried not to smile and failed. "Run them and staff them."

She shot him a startled glance. "You have sex for money?"

"I have sex for food.
The money is just a bonus."

"But." She
stopped and stared at the soapy pot in front of her. "What about the cops?"

Silas let out a huffing laugh. "You think we cannot manipulate a few
cops, grease a few political palms? And
we do not run the kinds of operations that cause the regular public trouble. Why bust us when there are much better
targets about?"

"Is being a hooker required?" Callie set the pot down and glared up at
him. "I feel like you should have
been more up front about this."

Silas twisted his mouth to one side and let out a sharp sigh
from his nose. "Of course not. It is an option available to you if you
decide that is the easiest way to eat.
If you would rather scare up your own food, that is fine. People keep an eye on you, though, to make
sure you do not harm the people you feed on."

"Oh.
Okay." She rinsed the pot
off and handed it to him. "And how
much do people pay to sleep with you?"

Silas gave her a wide, toothy grin. "I am very expensive."

Liar's Game

The One Rises

Book Five

Anna Wolfe

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal

Date of Publication: February 1st, 2016

ISBN: 9781311994134

Word Count: 75,900

Cover Artist: Kip Ayers

Book Description:

The Seer yanks his chain, and Silas could swear she does it for fun. Knowing that she manipulates everyone around her hasn't helped him at all over the last two centuries.

His little band of misfits has come apart. Edie is gone and refusing to speak to him. Mark is still trying to figure out how to control his ability and the Seer has ordered him to keep the boy in the dark. And Callie tempts him with a life he cannot have.

A seat on the powerful Witches Council has opened up and Silas is stuck in the middle of the machinations unfurling over which faction of the witches will gain the upper hand. Angry witches, lies, and murder are just the start.

Events in the Windy City will push Silas to the edge and reveal an unexpected enemy.

Silas
stood in the kitchen and stared down at his coffee. It was late and they'd only
just gotten back from the West Coast. The others had promptly vanished into
their rooms, no doubt to stew and generally hate his guts. He leaned forward
and inhaled the rich aroma of coffee made properly. He hadn't done more than
catnap since the disaster that had been his trip to the Bay Area enclave.

Edie is going to
leave. The
thought made him restless and angry. It wasn't that he needed her to stay, but
he didn't want her to leave hating him. Again.
He hated the blood contract that bound him. It killed anyone who discovered
who he really was and he had no control over the memories it stuffed into
people's heads as it hid his existence. It's
better that she leaves before I get her killed. He carried the coffee to
the living room and sat down on the couch. I
don't want her to hate me. I hate that she hates me.

He
set the coffee down untouched and prowled across the living room. Perhaps some music will help. And maybe I
should bake something. He set the volume low and scrolled through his music
collection. A nagging sensation of wrongness tugged at the back of his mind. He
paused, finger hovering over the screen, and swept his eyes over the living
room. A book was missing from the shelf.

Adrenaline
rushed through his veins. Not just any
book. The text about the demonborn. The book about me. He forced himself to
control his breathing and heart rate as he replayed the memory of their arrival
home. Mark, Edie, and Hatter all went
directly to their rooms. Callie got fruit from the… Callie!

Racing
across the house, Silas hoped he wasn't too late. He attempted to turn the
handle of her door and snarled when he found it locked. He kicked the door
open. Even as he did so, he spread his power out over Callie's room as thickly
as he could. If Callie was going to die, at least he could make sure she was
the only one.

Callie
looked up, her mouth hanging open in shock. The book was open on her lap.

"Stop!"
He bellowed the words. "If you want to live, stop!"

The
girl scrambled off the bed and away from him. The book tumbled to the floor
and, mouth set in a firm line, Callie threw her power at him, shoving him
against the wall and then pinning him there. Her power pulled up loose bits of
paper and dust until the air crackled with them.

"You
stay the hell away from me!" Callie
pointed a finger at him.

"Stop.
Stop thinking about me. Stop thinking about anything. Or you die and not by my
hand." Silas wriggled against the
weight of her power until he slipped free. Before she could hit him again, he
held his hands up in an effort to be nonthreatening and begged, "You have
to forget."

"Yeah,
well, I can't." Callie folded her
arms over her chest. "And you and your siblings were scary as fuck so just
stay the hell over there."

Silas
winced and then a sick ball of dread opened up in his stomach. And now she dies. I'll have to pass it off
as a suicide, but after the events in San Fran, Edie and Mark will be at risk.
They will both have to leave. And soon. Only Callie didn't die. One moment
turned into ten and still Callie stood there glaring at him. Shock rippled
through him, and for a moment, he couldn’t hear anything. The room wavered
under his feet, and he stumbled forward until he could sit on the end of the
bed.

"Silas?" Callie's voice sounded like she was speaking
from the end of the tunnel. "Dokuz?"

She
butchered the pronunciation of his name and still she didn't die. Silas stared
at her. How? How is this possible?

Her
power dropped away and she edged closer. "Are you okay?"

He
grabbed her wrist and yanked her towards him. Callie let out a shocked squeak,
and he could feel her gathering her power. "Why aren't you
dead?" They were nose-to-nose as he
growled the question.

"I
don't know." Callie shook her head
as she spoke. "To be honest, it still doesn't seem possible that you're…
what? Four hundred? Silas, that's crazy."

"Say
it." Silas bit off the words as a
sudden, wild hope sprang up in his chest.

"Uh,
what?" Callie tugged her arm and
when he didn't let go, she glared down at him. "Let go of me or I'm going
to knock you clear across the room."

"My
name." He enunciated as he released
her wrist. "Everything. Tell me who I am."

Callie
rubbed her wrist and narrowed her eyes at him. "Dokuz, born in 1603, the
ninth demonborn to survive his birth and Gabriel's youngest offspring. Mated
with Sekiz."

Silas
flinched to hear her say the words. And
still she does not die. She was looking at him like he was a mad man, but
showed no signs of burning up from the inside out. Silas let out an involuntary
sob and then pressed his head into his hands. I don't understand. This shouldn't be possible.

When
he looked up, Callie had gathered up the book and stood on the other side of
the room. Her gaze was fixed on him, almost unblinking, as she set the book
down on top of her dresser. "How did you survive Gabriel's purge?" She looked ready to bolt.

She's afraid of me.
The one person, other than the members of Conclave, who knows who I am and
she's terrified. Silas
started to laugh and once he started, he found he couldn't stop. Even Callie
pressing herself into the corner and pulling up her power didn't slow the
laughter down. He fell back on the bed and laughed until tears rolled down his
face.

Finally,
the laughter wheezed to a stop and Silas could push himself back up into a
sitting position. He wiped at his face with his hands. "You should be
dead."

"And
that's funny?" She edged towards
the door.

"No." With the madness of the laughter gone, all he
felt was tired. "How do I make you not be afraid of me?" He winced and rolled his shoulders to ease
the tightness. He needed her to have an answer to his question.

Callie
chewed on her lower lip and stared at him. He could tell when she went to
confer with the memory-sets because her pupils expanded to the edges of her
irises and her gaze went distant. When her gaze found his again, Silas straightened
his spine.

"Show
me." She stepped forward and held
out her hand. "Show me how you survived."

About the Author:

Anna Wolfe is a college professor by day and a novelist by night. In fact, writing urban fantasy is the only reason she is still (mostly) sane post-dissertation. When she isn't writing, teaching, or dicking around on the Internet, she is probably cooking with her husband or watching trashy television.